Chautauqua movement

“ The Chautauqua movement is progressive, and its friends and students are expected to make advancement in the line of its conceptions and provisions. It has court beyond court in which it unfolds its progressive aims and introduces its disciples to the higher privileges of culture which it provides. ”

“ We hope, however, to forward an account of our progress from time to time.”
“We can not do without the Chautauqua movement here,” so writes the secretary of the circle at Kahoka, Missouri. The class of workers there is large, including twenty-two regular members, beside many local ones. They are studious and regular, and as a result interested. Last year this circle held an open session in June, which was very successful, and they are looking forward hopefully to the next one.
The personnel of the circle at Columbus, Nebraska, is very striking, and, we think, decidedly an advantage. ”

“ Could the multitudes from every State and from foreign lands be attracted from Philadelphia five hundred miles to Chautauqua Lake? Had the quest of the American people for new interests been satisfied by two years at the Assembly? Would it be the wiser course in view of the competition to hold merely a modest little gathering at Fair Point, or to venture boldly upon greater endeavors than ever before; to enlarge the program, [73] to advertise more widely, and to compel attention to the new movement? ”

“ The S. H. G. and the C. L. S. C. of Osceola, Iowa, united in celebrating Milton’s day, on the eve of December 10. The first named society has ten members, the latter twenty-one. Each member had the privilege of inviting three friends, so that about one hundred and twenty in all assembled. The president of the C. L. S. C. presided, and a fine program was rendered. The guests were all in sympathy with the Chautauqua movement. Some of the circle, who are members of the S. H. G., scarcely know how life would go without the inspiring influences of the Circle. ”

“ We look, beyond the face of friends,
To mark the coming of the Dove.
Descend upon us as we wait
With open heart—with open Word;
Breathe on us, mystic Paraclete
Breathe on us, Spirit of the Lord!
Another song of the second Assembly, and sung through the years since at the services of the Chautauqua Circle, was written and set to music by Miss Lucy J. Rider of Chicago, afterward Mrs. Lucy Rider Meyer, one of the founders of the Deaconess movement in the Methodist Episcopal Church. ”

“ Things are built to stay. Chautauqua puts up no more shanties. It has become a city, not of a day but for all time.
The genuine hearty enthusiasm which animates the workers and friends of the movement is, to us, a most excellent reason for believing the institution lasting. There is a feeling among many that enthusiasm is a weakness, a quality not exactly in good form, not in keeping with cultured minds. This is a mistake. Enthusiasm, combined with good sense and industry, is the best equipment for any enterprise. ”

“ We have had four regular meetings, each of which has been attended by from forty to sixty persons—members of the Circle and their friends. Each evening we have had original papers on topics suggested by the study, tests, suitable poems, songs, etc. We have now forty-two members, ranging in years from fourteen to fifty. It was a little undecided at first what we should call ourselves, but it seemed like such an earnest band of workers, some one suggested we should be the “Philomaths.” We all praise the Chautauqua movement for the precious advantages it offers to all “lovers of learning.” ”

“ During this season also we were entertained with readings by Professor S. H. Clark, Mr. Will M. Carleton, and Miss Ida Benfey.
In the year 1895 another movement was begun at Chautauqua, which like the W. C. T. U. has swept over the entire continent and wrought mightily for the public welfare. At a Kindergarten Mothers' Meeting during the session, Mrs. Theodore W. Birney of Georgia, gave an address urging a National Congress of Mothers, and her [268] appeal awakened a prompt response. Many of those who had listened to her carried her message to their own home-towns; Mrs. ”

“ Every idea which becomes a force in the world has its primal origin in a living man or woman. It drops as a seed into one mind, grows up to fruitage, and from one man is disseminated to a multitude. The Chautauqua Idea became incarnate in two men, John Heyl Vincent and Lewis Miller, and by their coördinated plans and labors made itself a mighty power. ”

“ Think of one city which in the departments of literature, drama, philosophy, oratory, art, and public affairs could show more great men in two hundred years than all the rest of the world could show in two thousand!
We were treated during the season of 1913 to a sight new at that time, though common enough now. Mr. Engels brought to Chautauqua a Curtiss hydroplane, and day after day made flights, skimming over the surface of the lake, rising into the air, circling the sky and returning to the starting-point, to the amazement of the watching multitudes. ”

“ Here great political and social and economic problems have been discussed by those who by knowledge and experience are able to speak with authority. Chautauqua, the place, has been beautified and equipped with every convenience for community life. It has been a paradise for little children, has offered every opportunity for wholesome recreation, has given the best of music, literature, poetry and art freely to those who enjoy them. ”

“ We will not accept the votes of the [viii] thousands who beside the lake, in the Hall of Philosophy, or under the roof of the amphitheater, have been inoculated with the Chautauqua spirit. We will seek for the testimony of sane, intelligent, and thoughtful people, and we will be guided in our conclusions by their opinions. Let us listen to the words of the wise and then determine whether a book about Chautauqua should be published. We have the utterances by word of mouth and the written statements of public men, governors, senators, presidents; of educators, professors, and college presidents ”

“ Men at the head have changed, but not the policy of the institution. It has remained unshaken in its loyalty to the Christian religion and penetrated through and through with the Christian spirit, without flying the flag or wearing the badge of any one denomination of Christians. These have been the principles that placed Chautauqua at the front in its beginning and have kept it at the front through forty-eight years. ”

“ Chautauqua has always favored the freest discussion of all subjects and has admitted to its platform spokesmen upon all the questions of the time and from every point of view, even some unpopular men airing their unpopular ideas, confident that in the conflict of opinions the right will triumph. In 1913 the living question under discussion was Socialism; what it means, its positive aims and the arguments both for and against it. Here are the names of some speakers on that controverted subject. ”

“ There has been another vast expansion in the establishment of Chautauquas elsewhere, until the continent is now dotted with them. A competent authority informs the writer that within twelve months ten thousand assemblies bearing the generic name Chautauqua have been held in the United States and the Dominion [64] of Canada. There has been a third growth in the intellectual sweep of its plans. We have seen how it began as a system of training for teachers in the Sunday School. ”

“ The keynote of the year, and indeed of Chautauqua through all its history, was expressed in President George E. Vincent's utterance in his annual report—that Chautauqua must "be kept in close and sympathetic connection with the great currents of national life. It must be a center from which the larger and more significant movements may gain strength and intelligent support." The season this year opened on Friday, July 2d, with a lecture by President Vincent on "Vocation and Culture." ”

“ The Chautauquan is in earnest; it is the organ of one of the most vigorous and aggressive organizations for popular improvement, and its tone and matter are fixed for it by the high purpose of that organized crusade against ignorance and its consequences. We are not content to please or to satisfy passing curiosity. The whim or incident of the hour gets little of our attention. ”

“ For that is what Chautauqua has done for the world—it has let learning loose.
From the American Review of Reviews, July, 1914:
The president of a large technical school is quoted as having said that ten per cent. of the students in the institution over which he presides owe their presence to Chautauqua influence. A talk on civic beauty or sanitation by an expert from the Chautauqua platform often results in bringing these matters to local attention for the first time.
Here is an extract from The World To-day [xii] :
Old-time politics is dead in the States of the Middle West. ”

“ Vincent asked him, not to make a political speech, but to give in a few words his impressions of Chautauqua. He consented, and standing upon a stump, in the presence of a hastily assembled gathering, gave a ten-minute address, of which the following is a part.
You are struggling with one of the two great problems of civilization. The first one is a very old [184] struggle: It is, how shall we get any leisure? That is the problem of every hammer stroke, of every blow that labor has struck since the foundation of the world. ”

“ They chanced to hear of the Chautauqua Reading Course and sent for the books and magazines. They pursued the course, graduated, and visited Chautauqua. It awakened their entire being and brought them into a new world. They were literally born anew. I have witnessed wonderful changes in people, but never any that was more thorough, real, and permanent than in those young women. ”

“ Bryan himself gave this testimony in the Review of Reviews:
The Chautauqua affords one of the best opportunities now presented a public speaker for the discussion of questions of interest to the people. The audience is a select one, always composed of the thoughtful element in the community, and as they pay admission, they stay to hear. I believe that a considerable part of the progress that is now being made along the line of moral and political reform is traceable to the influence of the Chautauqua.
A writer in The Outlook (September 18, 1918) says:
I have studied the Chautauqua speakers. ”

“ Just then came the suggestion—made by President Lewis Miller, as Dr. Vincent told me at the time—that both the classes should read the books together, making the same course the second year for the Pioneers, and the first year's reading of "the Vincents," as the members of '83 named themselves. In a college there is a progression of studies, for one science must follow another; but in the Chautauqua Circle, it makes no difference whether the reader begins with the history of Greece or of Rome, or of England, or of America. New members can enter any year and read with those already reading. ”

“ For Chautauqua is growing! And its career is onward, and upward, and outward! It has planted itself in hundreds of cities and villages throughout the land, and in some other lands, and in thousands of social circles it has shown an influence and potency that is not only wholesome, but inspiring and wonderful. Well may the class of 1885 sing in behalf of the whole fraternity:
“No pent-up Utica contracts our powers ”

“ One point in New York State stands out in particular as the ideal place for this Congress to gather, namely Chautauqua, the home of the great Chautauqua Institution, on the shores of beautiful Chautauqua Lake. At this point, in a little city in the woods, are ample accommodations both for meeting places, exhibits, and housing for a gathering of five thousand people. ”

“ Robert Stuart MacArthur, the eminent Baptist preacher:
I regard the Chautauqua Idea as one of the most important ideas of the hour. This idea, when properly utilized, gives us a "college at home." It is a genuine inspiration toward culture, patriotism, and religion. The general adoption of this course for a generation would give us a new America in all that is noblest in culture and character.
Dr. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston, Chaplain of the United States Senate, in his Tarry At Home Travels, wrote:
If you have not spent a week at Chautauqua, you do not know your own country. ”

“ On the questions pertaining to trade unions and collective bargaining, however, one who talked with the Chautauqua constituency was surprised to find so large a number of progressive thinkers taking the side of labor against capital.
The Chautauqua Devotional Hour was represented in the season of 1910 by Dr. Hugh Black, Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, Dr. G. A. Johnston Ross, and Charles D. Williams, who was now Bishop of Michigan.
It has been found that many are eager to enjoy the advantages of the Summer Schools at Chautauqua who are unable to meet the expense. ”

“ Whoever could buy, borrow, or beg a copy of Green, rejoiced—we hope that no Chautauquan, in his hunger for literature, stole one, but we are not sure. People otherwise honest have been known to retain borrowed umbrellas and books.
In the Class of 1882 eight thousand four hundred names were enrolled, for the members brought home from Chautauqua the good news, and families, neighbors, and friends everywhere sent in their applications. Later we shall learn what proportion of these followed the course through the four years and marched under the arches to their Recognition as graduates. ”